Smell of Burning Plastic
by GasMaskGeek
Summary: The Batter finds himself awakened in a pitch black void, first welcomed by only the smell of plastic burning and rotten meat. He stays there for what feels like forever. He's found by an old friend from previous missions, and enters through a door to a mysterious land. This time his adventure strays far from the usual Zones, and The Judge is nowhere to be found. (Batterie fluff)
1. Room of Joker

"**I feel myself being called. The trumpets are sounding, the winds are blowing. The smell of burned plastic and rotten meat fills my nostrils once again."**

That was all The Batter could think before being thrust into a world of total darkness. His eyes opened, or at least, he thought they opened. What lay before him was nothing more than an empty abyss, and a solid ground beneath his feet. He tapped his right foot three times, then his left. He felt his bat in his hand and tightened his grip, tapping it against the ground as well to make sure his body wasn't deceiving him. Living as many different lives as he had, you never knew what was real and what was imaginary. He raised his other hand, feeling around for the bill of his hat. Everything seemed to be in check, so he decided to slowly walk forward. He reasoned that if he couldn't see, he'd eventually come to a wall, and then follow the wall to a door. What lied behind that door, he didn't care. Whatever it may be would be better than total darkness.

The Batter walked and walked for what felt like a century. Suddenly, a clicking noise came from behind him. He quickly turned around and readied his bat, preparing to strike at whatever was making the sound. In this world, with sound came light, and with light came life. The clicking turned into a squeaking, and The Batter was blinded by a bright white light. He shielded his eyes with his free hand and shouted, "Coward! Fight me without using such cowardly tactics!"

A familiar jokester voice said, "My my dear Batter, that's no way to greet an old friend now is it? Here I am opening the door for you, showing you the way out of this eternal darkness. I could have left you wandering you know."

The Batter lowered his hand and let his eyes adjust to the bright light. When his vision cleared, The Batter seen the cat mask wearing merchant standing in the doorway. His sweater was still the same two-sizes too big with a heart in the center of it. "Zacharie?" The Batter questioned. He wondered why he and Zacharie were in the same place once again, why the door opened behind him, why the smell of burning plastic pierced his nostrils. Zacharie turned to the side and held his right arm out to the side, so as to welcome The Batter into the new land. The Batter obliged, tipping his hat to Zacharie after entering.

His surrounding was stripped white and purple, like a grape-flavored peppermint candy. A large cube shaped building sat floating in the middle of a purple colored lake. Where he and Zacharie stood served as a boat docking, with several pedalo ready to be used. "I do hope you haven't lost your pedalo license. It wouldn't be very preferable for the both of us to squeeze into the same one," said Zacharie. He continued, "Also if you plan on fighting any aquatic creatures, please refrain from doing so in this zone. The water is very poisonous. I dropped credits into the water by accident when first arriving and when I scooped them out, my hands became paralyzed for some time."

"If bastards from the water attack me, I'm attacking them back. End of story," said The Batter as he boarded one of the pedalo. Zacharie held his hands up in the air and shrugged his shoulders. He boarded the pedalo next to The Batter's, and the two set off for the center island. It perplexed The Batter that this starting zone had no connecting bridge, and that Zacharie was the one to welcome him, instead o f The Judge. After the two docked on the island's port, The Batter charged towards the cube-shaped building and kicked the front door down, expecting something of evil intentions to be waiting inside.

Disappointed, The Batter walked to the center of the room and looked around, only to find the room was completely barren, save for a staircase to the left. He turned to Zacharie and asked, "So what's the big deal? Where's The Judge? Why is everything purple instead of yellow? This isn't the normal setup and I don't like it."

"Well you see . Coding can be changed, in many ways too. How do you know if you truly like or don't like the situation if you are just a string of numbers and letters? Regardless my friend, this time around it seems like both of us are going to be fighting the impure. I have my sword once again and my shop has turned into a holographic interface. I will, however, still accept your credits for other services, said Zacharie, pointing both of his index fingers and The Batter with his thumbs sticking up.

The Batter made a noise of confusion and said, "What do you mean by that? Whatever. Since The Judge isn't here to walk us through the beginning, how are we supposed to get to Damien?"

"Ah that brings me to the next explanation. Where we are standing right now is called Room of Joker. It acts as the nexus of this world. How exactly I have yet to figure out, but I believe it is linked to a set of cards." Zacharie walked to the back wall of the room and pushed on it, revealing a panel with five slots in it. In the middle sat a Joker playing card. Two slots sat on both side of the Joker card. Zacharie slid his fingers behind the card and lifted it, causing the room, but not the panel, to vanish. When he placed the card back down, the room rematerialized. "As you just saw with your own eyes, it seems this Joker card grants us access to the Joker room. Somewhere in this room, or on the island surrounding it, there must be another card that opens the door to another Zone."

The Batter listened attentively to Zacharie's explanation and tapped his bat against the ground as he thought. It was pretty evident no cards would be in this room, other than the only already on the panel. Without saying anything, he darted up the stairs and looked around. The second floor looked very similar to the postal office from his past excursions. He opened box after box after box. Eventually Zacharie followed him up the stairs, and chuckled at how frantic The Batter was to find a card. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

"My my dear Batter. You're in a hurry."

"Shut up Whiskers! My bat has a need to clean the impure and if I don't purify something soon I'm going to go nuts!"

"You can always purify me~"

"No."

"Ouch my feelings." Zacharie saw something go flying that looked like a card and dove after it. When he flipped it over and looked at the front, a red diamond shape was on it. He told The Batter, "Stop running around like a wild man. I think I've found the ticker to our next Zone." The Batter stopped in his tracks and walked over to Zacharie. After looking at the card, he shook his head in agreement and the two went back downstairs. Zacharie took a deep breath and placed the card in the slot right of the Joker card. A loud whirring sound came from outside. The two rushed outside and looked around. A glowing rectangle floated on the poisonous waters, and above it flashed the words 'Zone of Diamond'.


	2. Cows and Sheep

The same sensation washed over The Batter as had many times before when he and Zacharie entered Zone of Diamond. His entire body felt like thousands of weak electric rods stabbed through the surface of his skin, his eyes went blank, and his limbs stiffened; however he never felt any amount of pain sufficient enough to make him scream or even wince. When he arrived in Diamond, The Batter seen Zacharie already ahead of him standing in front of a sign with his hand on his chin. The merchant noticed his counterpart's arrival and said, "Dear Batter come here. This sign perplexes me."

The Batter shook off the static feeling crawling under his skin and held his bat against his shoulder. He walked over to Zacharie and examined the sign, which looked like the usual license plate styled sign of past experiences, with the exception of one thing. It read, 'Zone of Diamond' but was scratched out, and underneath it said 'This is Daimen fucking Daimen that damn programmer is out of his fucking mind dammit'. The letters were red with an odd grain textured white substance mixed with it. Zacharie chuckled. "Apparently still watches over the first zone."

"Angry Nipples."

"Yes my dear friend, the man who refuses to wear a shirt and lashes out at the smallest thing. Why I remember once when coming here on business, he snapped an Elsen's neck for having a meat stain on his shirt."

The Batter marched forward towards a rather large green building, expecting to find an Elsen to give him clearance, kill specters, and so on. When he entered, however, things were vastly different from what he imagined. Thousands upon thousands of hooks were attached to the ceiling, all of them with cows and sheep still alive and squirming hanging from them. The animals' mouths had been sewn shut, but not their eyes. Oh no, their eyes were wide open and all focused on The Batter and Zacharie. When The Batter's pupils met with the animals', and unspoken cry for help resonated in his heart. This was strange, because all the times before when he'd seen something hurt or in pain, he felt nothing. He looked to the ground and seen pools of red below the hooks, and footprints leading from one puddle to the next. The Batter was frozen in place, trembling. He dropped his bat and started scratching at his neck due to the feeling of it having a giant rock in it, preventing him from breathing right.

Zacharie looked over to The Batter and said, "Your eyes. They're full of fear. Now you see…. Now you see how this world actually is. It seems your child has given you the gift of emotion this time. I wonder what else has changed."

Looking at his comrade and still holding his throat, as if he were choking himself, The Batter felt a boiling bead of water cascade down his cheeks and onto the ground. He was crying. Zacharie held out his hand in front of him, materializing his sword used to once take down an unruly king. When he started roaming around in the meat factory checking the floor for panels, The Batter knew the only way to get rid of the images before him would be to progress farther. If Dedan was the person behind all of this, he would have to suffer every ounce of The Batter's wrath.

While looking around in the building for switches, buttons, or even spectres, a lonely Elsen wandered in from the side of the building opposite the duo's entrance. He laid his eyes on The Batter and Zacharie, and then panicked. He started running in circles and smoking from the mouth. "Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! You are not supposed to be in here! Leave leave phantoms leave! Bad bad this is bad Dedan will be angry very bad!"

The Batter caught the frantic Elsen by his shoulder and forced him to stop. "We are here to help. I'm The Batter, and I've come to purify this world along with my friend, Zacharie. Animals being treated like this are an atrocity, and judging by the way you act, Dedan still isn't very friendly himself." Zacharie smiled to himself underneath his mask and muttered something about The Batter 'finally saying it'.

"You're you're….. ahhh going to h-help us…. You you….. What….. What are you going to do to Dedan? Kill him?" said the Elsen, trembling in fear and still smoking at the mouth.

"Yes."

The Elsen just stared at The Batter, wide-eyed and scared. He didn't know what to think or what to feel. For years he'd been pushed around and treated like a doormat. Now someone's come along claiming to be able to help him. The Elsen looked towards Zacharie and a feeling of anger stirred inside of him, making the smoke spewing from his mouth turn solid black and reek of plastic. "You! You let him die! Die! My brother died and you let him! You heard his neck break! You you…. You jerk!" The Elsen pushed The Batter away from him with all of his might and screamed. He held on hand of his stomach, the other over his heart, and squeezed them. His head started rocking violently from side to side, eventually flying off, landing somewhere on top of the mutilated animals. From his body came a gigantic black phantom with a wicked smile and sharp teeth.

"Zacharie what did you do to him?"

"No time Batter, if we don't kill the spectre then it'll kill us."

The Batter's legs couldn't move and he watched Zacharie charge the beast. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move. He could hear the sound of crying bounce against his ears, accompanied by the words 'You killed him'. He tried to speak, but was unable to do so, thus being rendered helpless. All he could do was watch as Zacharie plunged his sword into the beast's heart. Its body dropped to the ground and disintegrated, taking with it the sound of crying and the Elsen's head. The Batter regained control of his body and rushed over to Zacharie, asking him if he were okay.

"Yes, I'm okay. This is a game, and this is our role."

"What is under that mask of yours?"

"….." Zacharie sighed and tossed his sword into the air. It dematerialized. "We need to find Dedan. The sooner he's gone, the sooner this place is purified, and the sooner this is all over."

Once again The Batter found himself feeling what he assumed to be the emotion of sadness. He didn't know why, and it frightened him. He felt like something was extremely wrong with Zacharie, and the world for that matter. Livestock treated lower than trash, and Elsen exploding out of anger instead of at random. The echoes of crying and pleas for help. This time was very different from the past, but maybe. Just maybe the bleak depression of the world could be changed. Maybe the guardians had hearts too. The Batter wanted to know more about Zacharie's past and his experiences, but saved that for another day. For now, he and his partner trudged on in the bloodied and smoke-filled zone.


End file.
